Sonic Blast (Game Gear)

Sonic Blast
Also known as: G Sonic (JP) Developer: Aspect Publisher: Sega Platform: Game Gear Released in JP: December 13, 1996 Released in US: November 1996 Released in EU: November 1996 This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused abilities. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences.

To do: Document the absurdly long opening theme.

Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 3D Blast + worse gameplay = Sonic Blast.

Level Select

Press Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, 1, 2, 1, 2, Start at the title screen.

Unused Text

A build date is present at 0xC0:

GG SONIC 96     
      Ver E3 ROM
1996/05/01 @SEGA
/Aspect Co.,Ltd

This predates the earliest available prototype (dated May 31, 1996), which also contains this text.

The build date is very likely September 10, 1996, as a build labeled "Prototype 910" is bit-for-bit identical to the final ROM.

Error Handler

All of the 8-bit Sonic titles developed by Aspect contain a generic error handler routine at ROM 70. While the other games' routines consist of some variation on "print an error message and reset", the Sonic Blast handler simply freezes the game by going into an infinite loop. Since the game doesn't call this routine and the Z80 has no hardware error trapping, this code will only execute in the extremely unlikely event that a bug coincidentally causes the game to jump directly into it.

Unused Graphics

Present in the graphics for Sonic is this unused animation of the Strike Dash ability, which was in Sonic Chaos and Sonic Triple Trouble. All that remains of this move is this animation, which is stored with a vastly different object palette than used in the final game. (The above sprite animation was given a proper palette for visual clarity.)

Regional Differences

US/Europe	Japan

The game was known as G Sonic in Japan, so the title screen reflects this.